Why do Children Need Chiropractic Care?

Children can receive chiropractic care to align their spine for proper nervous system and body function and to correct foward head posture due to hunching over electronic devices.

Why would an infant need chiropractic care?

Dr. Gary Weinstein: The most traumatic thing, Liz, that we go through in our lifetime is really being born. The process of the birth is very traumatic to the infant. Now, if there’s any assistance in that by using forceps, vacuum extraction, and things along those lines, there’s a tremendous trauma placed on the baby’s spine, especially the cervical spine, during birth. This can cause a multitude of problems starting at that birthing process. So, it’s best to have the child checked.

Now some of the things that parents may see after the birthing process is the baby may be colicky. A baby may have reflux problems. A baby may have ear infections. A normal healthy child does not have any of these things. Now, one of the reasons these things occur is that the spine is subluxated and the body is not functioning properly. As we know from before, subluxation is a vertebra out of place causing an interference to the nervous system. These children respond extremely well to chiropractic care.

Can you describe the type of chiropractic adjustment or treatment that babies receive?

Dr. Gary Weinstein: Yes, we do a thermal scan and a thermal scan measures temperature difference, one inch on each side of the spine. That can be part of the puzzle, so we use that as a piece of the puzzle and it shows us where problems may be occurring. Then we also palpate the infant’s spine. And what we’ll notice in an infant are little fixations that the spine is not moving like it should. A very soft, gentle pressure at the levels of the fixation, get those vertebra moving properly, reduce the subluxation complex. So, an adjustment to an infant is a very, very light force being used. I don’t even like the word force being used; a very light procedure and the children respond, and infants respond extremely, extremely well to chiropractic care.

How does chiropractic care help with ADD, ADHD and sensory issues?

Dr. Gary Weinstein: Most of the time when we’re dealing with these issues, we’re dealing with children that are developing a forward head posture. In one of our other blogs we talked about the forward head posture, but people don’t realize it’s in the children as well. So, they become sympathetic dominant, so that’s that fight or flight instinct and it’s a driving instinct and they can’t settle down. So, by getting adjusted we can start to stimulate and get the parasympathetics to function better so that they can calm down, they can become more able to adapt to their environment. We work with a tremendous amount of ADD, ADHD children in our office and they all respond very, very well.

Most kids are hunched over devices these days. Can a chiropractor help with kids’ posture?

Dr. Gary Weinstein: Absolutely. Again, the forward head posture, both in children and adults, is one of the major things we’re seeing in the office right now and the effects are absolutely devastating. They’re constantly bent forward; we need to bring their head back up over their shoulders. That one-inch forward head posture decreases vital capacity over 30%. So, we see again over-stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, decreased parasympathetic which is also our gut function, and gut function we now know has a tremendous, direct correlation to the serotonin production, which is our feel good hormone. These kids are winding up with depression, things like that, from decreased serotonin levels.

Now it’s not caused by a decrease of antidepressants, which is how they’re being treated. You bring these kids, get their posture back, get their head up over their shoulders, get their spine and brain functioning in sync once again, and it’s amazing the results that we can see.

How can young athletes benefit from chiropractic care?

Dr. Gary Weinstein: As with any athlete, including young athletes, chiropractic care should first be done to make sure that we have a properly functioning structure and musculoskeletal structure. Therefore, the structure dictates function and we get a properly functioning nervous system as well, along the way. This helps with their coordination, their hand-eye coordination, helps with their ability to run. If we have a twisted pelvis, you can’t run to your optimum potential. If we have a cervical spine that’s not properly aligned, you can’t throw a ball, you can’t bat. Most of your professional athletes all use chiropractors because they know, and they’re not in because it hurts, they’re in for peak performance.

We take care of quite a few professional athletes, old and new, here in the office and they’re not here because they hurt, they’re here for peak performance.

Learn More

If you are interested in speaking with Dr. Gary Weinstein visit www.weinsteinchiro.comor call 412-269-0444 to schedule an appointment.